Toys 'R' Us baby contest sparks fuss

Toys "R" Us Inc. has come under fire for denying a Chinese-American infant a $25,000 savings bond prize in a contest for the New Year's first baby because the company said the girl's mother is not a legal U.S. resident.
The company's decision — which came less than a month after it opened its first mainland China store, in Shanghai — has infuriated some Chinese-American advocates.
Yuki Lin was born at the stroke of midnight at New York Downtown Hospital, according to hospital officials. She won a random drawing held to break a tie with two other babies entered in the contest, Toys "R" Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh said.
The Wayne, N.J.-based company had said the prize would go to the first American baby born in 2007.
Although promotional materials called for "all expectant New Year's mothers" to apply for the contest, Waugh said eligibility rules required babies' mothers to be legal residents. Many sweepstakes have such requirements, Waugh said.
Although Yuki was born an American citizen, Waugh said the contest administrator was told that Yuki's mother "was not a legal resident of the United States."
Attempts to reach Yuki's parents, Yan Zhu Liu and Han Lin, 22, for comment were unsuccessful early Saturday. Their immigration status was not clear.
The prize went instead to runner-up Jayden Swain, born 19 seconds after midnight at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Ga. The third baby in the running was born in Bay Shore, N.Y., to a couple from El Salvador.
Some Chinese-American advocates say the company's decision smacks of second-class citizenship.
"People are just pretty much outraged," said John Wang, president of the New York-based Asian American Business Development Center.
Albert Wang, an attorney, has launched an e-mail campaign on the issue. "She was deprived of $25,000 intended to be used for her college education because of who her parents are," he said.
Janet Keller, a grandmother of the winning baby, said revisiting the contest would be unfair.
"She was disqualified — that should be it," Keller said. "Don't go changing your mind now."

Most contests have eligibility rules. I am really damn sick and tired of people playing the race card when it's plain that it had NOTHING to do with it in this case. It trivializes REAL issues around racism.

^^I agree. I don't see anything controversial about this...
So what if she wasn't eligible...you don't qualify for certain things when you don't have a legal status. Get used to it I did...(hehe). And might I add that it was only a toy prize? Big deal.

If you think it's crazy, you ain't seen a thing. Just wait until we're goin down in flames.

I constantly see contests and the like that Canadians aren't eligible to enter. Hell, on e-bay, lots of sellers don't even ship here. Should I say they are discriminating against me? It really is the same thing.

This is absolutely ridiculous, I'm so sick of all this nonsense. Every single sweepstakes opportunity has rules, and most state that you have to be a legal resident or a citizen of the US to qualify. These people must have too much time of their hands.

Looks like Toys-backwards R-Us has gone back on their decision and will give the baby the $25000 after all. Interestingly, the article says, with regards to the parents, "Their immigration status was not clear." That would be a bit embarrassing if they turned out to be legal.http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,242242,00.html

"The howling backwoods that is IMDB is where film criticism goes to die (and then have its corpse gang-raped, called a racist, and accused of supporting Al-Qaeda)" ----Sean O'Neal, The Onion AV Club

Yes it would be. And if they aren't legal residents then there's a wonderful lesson in this for all of us. If you don't get what you want, raise a huge fuss until you do! I wonder which it is? We'll probably never get to find out.

"The howling backwoods that is IMDB is where film criticism goes to die (and then have its corpse gang-raped, called a racist, and accused of supporting Al-Qaeda)" ----Sean O'Neal, The Onion AV Club

NEW YORK - After coming under fire for denying a Chinese-American infant a $25,000 prize in a New Year's baby contest because her mother was not a legal U.S. resident, Toys "R" Us Inc. said Saturday evening that it had reversed its decision.

The company said it would award each of the three babies in the grand prize pool of the "First Baby of the Year Sweepstakes" a $25,000 savings bond. Toys "R" us is the parent company of Babies "R" Us, which sponsored the contest.

Toys "R" Us, which opened its first mainland China store less than a month ago, changed its mind after Chinese-American advocates protested and the story was reported in ethnic newspapers and The New York Times, among other outlets.

"We love all babies," the company said in a written statement Saturday. "Our sweepstakes was intended to welcome the first baby of 2007 and prepare for its future. We deeply regret that this sweepstakes became a point of controversy."

The prize was originally supposed to go to Yuki Lin, who was born at the stroke of midnight at New York Downtown Hospital, according to hospital officials.

She won a random drawing with two other babies for the $25,000 savings bond, said Toys "R" Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh. The Wayne, N.J.-based company had said it would go to the first American baby born in 2007.

Yuki was born an American citizen. But the company disqualified her because "the sweepstakes administrator was informed that the mother of the baby born at New York Downtown Hospital was not a legal resident of the United States," Waugh said.

Although promotional materials called for "all expectant New Year's mothers" to apply, Waugh said eligibility rules required babies' mothers to be legal residents. Many sweepstakes have such requirements, Waugh said.

The original prize was instead awarded to runner-up Jayden Swain, born 19 seconds after midnight at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Ga. The third baby in the running was born in Bay Shore, N.Y., to a couple from El Salvador.

Chinese-American advocates had complained that the toy company's decision smacks of second-class citizenship. They said the prize should was supposed to be for the child, not the mother. One attorney launched an e-mail campaign on the issue.

"People are just pretty much outraged," John Wang, president of the New York-based Asian American Business Development Center, told the Times for Saturday's editions.

On the other side, Janet K. Keller, a grandmother of the winning baby, said revisiting the contest would be unfair. "She was disqualified — that should be it," she told the Times. "Don't go changing your mind now."

Announced last night that they reversed their decision and Chinese-American baby gets his grant. They probably realized that they'll lose more than $25,000 at their new store opened in China less than a month ago.